Ashley Cassens is an Artist and Educator who believes that paint is a conduit for touch in a digital world.
Ashley is a native Floridian who earned her BFA from Florida Southern College in 2006 practicing classical figure painting methods. She later earned an MFA from Florida Atlantic University in 2017, where she received a full Graduate Teaching Assistantship.
She has been awarded the Provost Fellowship, two Graduate Advisory Board Grants, a Friedland Grant, a Rothenberger Scholarship, an Ambassador of the Arts Scholarship, was twice awarded a Women in the Visual Arts Scholarship, and a Innovative Art Grant, 1st National Bank of Pasco Grant and the South Pasadena Grant from Creative Pinellas.
Ashley developed a signature portrait style combining retro-patterned fabric with highly realistic figures. That work has since been licensed by Home Goods. This method of painting informs her approach to her favorite mural subject, flora and fauna.
In 2022, she quit teaching full-time to paint murals. Her murals are inspired by the process of oil painting and the color palette of her home state, Florida. She is regularly booked by both private and commercial clients in and around the Tampa Bay area. She has since painted 62 murals, including: schools, non-profits, national corporations, and prominent design firms and private residences.
